DAYTON, Tenn. – Elimination Round 1 of the Econo Lodge Stage Four Presented by Winn Grips began with MLF pro Randy Howell sitting in 13th place. The round ended with Howell moving up two spots to 11th place, but his day on Lake Chickamauga wasn’t as easy as it appears.
The Alabama pro began his day with two 2-pound bass to get him on SCORETRACKER™ early. However, those two fish were the only scorable bass for Howell. His dry spell landed him below the Elimination Line with ground to make up over the final two periods. Howell said the lack of action on the SCORETRACKER™ was due to the morning conditions.
“I’ve been working a bed fishing pattern and trying to sight fish,” Howell revealed. “In the morning, you can’t really see anything and you can mess up fishing through an area without really seeing anything. It can really hurt your confidence. I was just trying to catch some bonus fish with a crankbait until the conditions were right, where I could see and sight fish again.”
Howell’s day turned around about 45 minutes into Period 2. Working a ½-ounce Lunker Lure Ultimate Rattlin Jig with a Yamamoto Flappin Hawg trailer, Howell hooked up with his biggest catch of the day. A 7-pound, 3-ounce largemouth swallowed the jig and gave the pro some confidence that got him going in the right direction once again.
“I was looking for that 7-3 female during the whole first period,” Howell explained. “I thought I had her a couple of times and I missed her but I finally got her. That’s when the sun came up and I really got rolling. I could see better and my sight fishing pattern really started clicking.”
Howell ended the round in a flurry, landing 34 pounds over the final two periods to push his two-day weight total to 82-11 and into Saturday’s Knockout Round. This will be Howell’s third appearance in a Knockout Round. After a rough Stage Three—where he missed the Elimination Round cut—Howell is more than ready to get back to the fishing he knows he is capable of performing.
“I’m glad to be back in the Knockout Round after an uncharacteristically bad event in North Carolina,” Howell said with relief. “It really hurt my confidence for a few days, but I had to shake it off and move on. It was good to catch some fish these first two days and do well. Hopefully, I can keep this momentum going.”
With a fourth-place finish in Stage One and a 26th-place finish in Stage Two, Howell knows what it takes to be successful on the Bass Pro Tour. After catching 37
“You can’t get caught up trying to catch one or two fish, you’ve got to keep moving and go with the odds,” Howell explained. “Some fish don’t bite, some bite quick and easy, you just need to keep covering water and playing the numbers game. I’ll keep catching those 2-pound males anywhere I can find them, but I won’t turn away a 6- or 7-pounder either.”
Howell and the 19 other anglers who made the cut in Elimination Round 1 now await a Knockout Round date with the Top 20 anglers from Group B. Coverage for Elimination Round 2 begins at 7:30 a.m. ET with SCORETRACKER on MajorLeagueFishing.com with the MLF NOW! live stream beginning at 10 a.m. ET.